The Bundesverband Musikindustrie (English: Federal Music Industry Association), or simply BVMI, represents the music industry in Germany. The association represents the interests of nearly 280 labels and music industry related enterprises, which comprise 90% of the music industry.[3]

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BVMI launched its Gold and Platinum award program in 1975, and relies on an independent auditor for the accuracy of the sales required for the awards.[5]

BVMI will have instituted Diamond-award for the first time in its history on June 1, 2014. While BVMI will begin awarding Diamond-awards starting from June 1, 2014, the organization will apply the award to the titles released on/after January 1, 2013.[6]

Starting also from June 1, 2014, BVMI raised its certification-award-levels for the Singles, from the previous 150,000 units for Gold and 300,000 units for Platinum to 200,000 units for Gold and 400,000 units for Platinum. The change in the certification-levels of the Singles is affected by both inclusion of Streaming as well as an increase in sales of downloads that has been sees in recent years.[6] The company will consider 100 streams with the running time of at least 30 seconds or more as one single download.[6]

The association does not issue awards for 2 x Gold or 4 x Gold which overlie the requirements of platinum certification awards.[5] Sales of both physical and digital, whether it is an album or a single, can be included for certification.